Civileme wrote:
> Well, with all of that, you seem to have exhausted possibilities. Now we have to
> consider the MB and the power supply.
>From what I know, even if the jumpers were totally msiconfigured.. we
should get power to the motherboard... maybe you're giving ATX too much
credit? Remember if there's a problem, then there's no telling if this
'automatic power-down on problems' is even working correctly.
>
> For the power supply, you could use a cheap multimeter on a 0-20 volt setting OR you
> could use a front-panel Led in line with a 1.2 k ohm resistor
>
> Black to red should be 5 volts Black to yellow 12 Or the light should light in both
> cases, noticeably brighter on black to yellow, once the proper polarity is selected.
> LEDs are diodes hooked backwards and running in breakdown to emit light.
Well, I have a multimeter here. Since +12V powers the fasn, that would
be what I'd like to check.. Remember, my CD-ROM powered on, so those
(3?) wires that go into the drives are functioning. The problem is the
power cable needs to be connected for the power to turn on, and then
there's nowhere for me to stick the multimeter... there's not enough
space between the wires and the plastic to stick it in the back.. and I
can't stick it in the front because it's plugged in...
>
> Another test is to disconnect the circuit board and power up just the HDD -- if it
> spins and initializes (with a lot of stepping noise) Then most likely the MB is at
> fault.
The CD-ROM did. I'd rather not take my hard drive out of this PC. I took
the floppy out and now the floppy controller seems to have died.. and
this PC has worked almost flawlessly for 3 years -- quite a coincidence
eh?
>
> Most likely it is the power supply--even though the board is more complex, we are
> talking about rather mature technology. Switching power supplies do sometimes fail
>in
> the best of circumstances.
If I had another poweer supply to test (which I don't) we could settle
that once and for all.
>
> If it is the power supply, the chances of any board damage are very slight, because
> ATX boards can shut down the power in the even of problems.
That's the odd thing. The case fan and the drives power on, so at least
some of the power supply is working, yet the CPU gets hot, so parts of
the motherboard are working to, now granted there could be a short
anywhere in the motherboard and that would cause bad things to happen.
--
Sincerely,
David Walluck
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
